This Thing that Happens
by JadeJedi
Summary: My first Doctor Who fic. Two weeks after 42 Martha asks the Doctor about the thing he does before he dies and it brings up painful memories for the Doctor. 10/Rose. One-shot. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**Wow this is the first time I've posted a Doctor Who fic so tell me what you think.:) I know this is long for a one-shot but oh well. I tried to portray Martha realistically but I'm not sure what to think, so I need your opinion. Obviously you can tell from my pen name I'm a star wars fan, but I'm going through a huge Doctor Who obsession. Please review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.**

Martha was sitting in the console room with the Doctor quietly watching him work with the TARDIS. It seemed like that was all he was ever doing. She never saw him sleep and he never seemed like one to talk conversationally. It was odd really, she mused as the Doctor kicked the console in frustration, he gabbed on and on if it were about physics or Time, but when it came to just conversing with her he was silent.

Deep down Martha wondered if he'd talked, really _talked_ with Rose, _Probably did_, she said silently, with a tinge of jealousy.

What could have possibly possessed Rose to leave such a wonderful, brilliant, good-looking man like the Doctor? And why wouldn't he just move on? Didn't he care at all about her, Martha Jones, a girl who was here right now, with him?

Trying to distract herself from this train of thought she made an attempt at conversation by asking the Doctor something that had been on her mind for two weeks, ever since they'd left that living sun.

"Doctor," she said to get his attention. He looked up from his work a bit startled. "Hm? Oh, what?"

Her voice was filled with curiosity as she spoke. "A couple weeks ago on that space ship, you said that there was . . ." she paused as she tried to recall his words. "This thing that happens to you right before you die. What is it?" Martha thought the Doctor looked a bit surprised at the question as ran his hand through his amazing brown hair.

"Oh yes, that. Weeeeell, there's not much point in it now is there? I'm fine, you're fine, no chance of it happening now, so, let's see, where do you want to go next? Do you want to see Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? He's just brilliant, you'd love him."

Martha sighed. This was how he always was. He never let anyone in. Ever. Every time she tried to get him to talk to her just brushed her off, but not this time. "Doctor!" she said with a raised voice to stop him from rambling. "Please, tell me. You are amazing and brave and clever, but you attract trouble like a magnet. Tell me. Don't you think I should know these things?"

To her relief the Doctor sighed. "It's a thing my people do to . . . skirt around death," he began bluntly. "it's called regeneration." Martha stared at him dubiously so he continued. "The body dies along with this personality and is replace with another," he said easily, but Martha thought it bothered him more than he let on.

Martha was thoroughly confused. It was . . . impossible wasn't it? His body was replaced? And his personality?

"What do you mean, replaced?" Replaced how?"

"Regeneration is . . . complicated," he admitted. "In simplest terms, my body, my current body that is, appears to explode in energy and it . . . morphs into another body.

Martha looked at him with amazement as if she were expecting him to burst into flames.

"This is all second hand information of course," he said seeing his companion's expression, "I got all this from Rose. She was there when I regenerated into this body. It's probably why I'm the way I am. She was all I was thinking of at the time.

"She saved my life," he said wistfully, "If it weren't for her I'd be completely dead, not just this body. She was terrified at first when she first saw me like this. Thought I'd been kidnapped, didn't help that the regeneration went a bit wrong. Poor girl, she thought I'd left her. But we still saved the world that day. All it took was a cuppa tea," he said fondly. He turned to Martha. "You saw that, didn't you? The people on the roof?"

Martha knew he was connected to some extraterrestrial activity, but that was huge! People were talking about it for months. People were still talking about it! He'd saved them . . . with Rose. Why was it always Rose? And what did he mean she was the reason he was him?

The Doctor was still talking, but this time it just hurt too much. "Why do you love her so much?" Martha asked maybe a bit too harshly.

As soon as she'd said it the Doctor froze and a pained expression came over his face she knew she'd stepped over some kind of line, but another part of her hoped he'd deny loving Rose. What was that girl anyways, some kind of goddess?

For a few seconds he didn't say anything, he just wore a sad expression on his face that made Martha want to talk to Rose and give her a piece of her mind. How dare that girl leave the Doctor!

And the thing that amazed her the most was that Rose left the Doctor and yet he still loved her. "I'm sorry," she said softly. When he didn't respond she turned and left the console room. Before she could leave, though the Doctor turned to her.

"I met Rose right after the Time War. My last body was broken. Emotionally, I mean. I'd just lost all my people. I was- I was the reason they died. I was a mass murderer with big ears and nose and lots of pain and anger and guilt, but she was still there for me. Always. She was prepared to die for me. She healed me. She trusted me no matter what I did. She was," he paused and shook his head mournfully. "She _is _brilliant." And with that Martha nodded speechlessly and walked out of the room.

As she left the Doctor whispered, "My pink and yellow human. If there is one thing in all the universes that I believe in I believe in you, Rose Tyler, whether I wear leather, or pinstripes, or anything else, I believe in you."


	2. Chapter 2

**So even though I had planned for this to be just one chapter, you guys asked for more, so here it is. ****:)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.**

Chapter 2

As she walked down the halls Martha realized she was no less confused. Sure, she knew why the Doctor said he loved Rose and it was obvious why Rose loved him (who wouldn't?), but that didn't explain what had possessed her to leave, and Martha still wasn't convinced that Rose was a better match for the Doctor than her.

Martha had been looking for her own bedroom now for five minutes, but the TARDIS didn't seem to want her to find it. She'd found the library, five different pools, the garden, but no bedroom.

"Hold on, what's this?" she asked as she came upon a door she'd never seen before. Almost all doors in the TARDIS had some way of identifying what each room was, and Martha had taken to memorizing each one after she'd gotten herself lost for an hour trying to find the library, so she definitely knew that this was one she'd never seen before.

On the door was a beautifully carved image of a rose. "This must have been Rose's room," she said slowly. "Why did the TARDIS lead me here?" she murmured to herself. "Can I go in here?" Martha asked to thin air.

To her complete surprise she felt something inside her head. Her eye's widened. It felt like the ship was saying yes. Martha laughed in disbelief. "Ships don't answer; don't be daft!"

Finally after a few moments of considering Martha slowly opened the door. Well, at least it wasn't locked. That was something. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

As she walked in Martha felt her curiosity reach an all-time high. The pink room looked completely normal. No one could tell it was a bedroom on a bigger-on-the-inside space ship; it was just an ordinary room. Martha's room looked more like a hotel room; it was nice, but this looked like it was personalized.

For the most part the room was neat, but there were a few thing out of place, like it was waiting for Rose to come home. There was a jacket slung over a chair and a hairbrush lying out on a table. The bed was made, but it looked as if someone had been sleeping on top of the covers recently.

Martha couldn't contain a small smile as she saw pictures everywhere. Some were framed, some weren't. To her surprise Rose wasn't a goddess, or anything completely amazing. She was pretty, sure, but so was Martha.

The first picture Martha saw had two people in it. The first was Rose who was holding hands and smiling at a man who looked quite a bit older than her. He was wearing a black leather jacket and had a big nose and even bigger ears. The man looked like he was trying to hold back a grin, but couldn't.

After looking around Martha realized there seemed to be a lot of pictures with this man. They were laughing in the console room, curled up together on the couch in the library, and chatting casually on planets Martha had never seen before. Some pictures included another man, this one was completely opposite of Big Ears. He was very good looking; he had dark hair and beautiful blue eyes, and unlike the other man he didn't look like he could stop smiling.

Martha suddenly recalled what the Doctor had said about regeneration and realized that Big Ears was the Doctor. She laughed. Who would have thought?

There were also pictures of Rose with the Doctor that Martha was familiar with. In almost every picture they were holding hands and talking, or laughing, or just sitting in companionable silence. Martha's expression softened. He seemed so happy; happier than she'd ever seen him before, that was for sure.

Again Martha felt a tinge of jealously. What was it about Rose that made the Doctor so happy when Martha couldn't? She sighed and walked out of the room.

Not long after Martha left Rose's room the Doctor walked in and sat on the edge of Rose's bed. He sighed. Since she'd left he'd tried not to change a thing. He wanted this room to remain forever a memory of his pink and yellow human, just waiting in case she came home.

The Doctor glance at some of the pictures on Rose's night stand and smiled. Most of the pictures had been taken by either Jack or Mickey when they hadn't been looking. Unknown to Rose he had his own copy of every single one of the pictures in his own room, all framed and neatly arranged.

He had always meant to show her, but now she'd never know.

Lately the Doctor had taken to sleeping in Rose's room, in the few cases when he actually needed sleep, just to be reminded of her. Because though there were a lot of thing in his past the Doctor wanted to forget, but he would never, ever forget his Rose.

**That's it for this chapter! I think I'll have at least a couple more, one covering Human Nature and then Utopia and the last one set during Journey's End. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I had planned to make this at least 2 chapters, but I decided it would be better this way. I'm not exactly sure about this chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyways. Thank you all for reading. ****:)**

Martha stared at the screen. "Oh, my god, he found you," she said in shock. She stared at the Doctor, and then at Rose for a few seconds.

She had been so jealous of Rose when she had traveled with the Doctor.

When they were hiding from the Family of Blood Martha couldn't believe her eyes when she saw John's notebook. When he wasn't looking she'd taken a look at his journal and she'd found a several pages full of Rose. There were drawings, and stories, and a whole page with the words 'perfect Rose' written over and over.

Martha had looked through the whole notebook, and she found no mention of herself. That evening she'd gone to Rose's room in the TARDIS again to try and see why the Doctor thought she was so special, but she hadn't found anything new.

Then at the end of the universe even Jack had known Rose. He's seemed ecstatic when the Doctor told him the blonde girl was still alive in a parallel world. Martha had wondered what made him think she was dead.

Later, after she had left the Doctor, Martha had searched the name 'Rose Tyler' on the internet. After searching through the results she realized with horror that on memorial of the Battle of Canary Wharf, the name 'Rose Tyler' was on the list of the dead. Had the Doctor been lying about her being alive, like he had about Gallifrey? Or had the list gotten it wrong? Martha thought she'd never know.

But now, here she was, Rose Tyler in the flesh, standing beside the Doctor in the vault deep inside the Crucible. The girl who came back.

After the Crucible was destroyed Martha saw the two smile adoringly at each other. She'd never seen him smile like that before. Instead of making her jealous, as it would have a year before it only made her happy.

It didn't matter that Rose looked like just another ordinary girl to Martha, because the Doctor didn't see her that way, and that was all that mattered.

**So, yeah, it was short, but whatever. :p Hope you liked it. :D**


End file.
